Hammer Of The Gods hits Blu-ray and DVD on September 10th from Magnolia Home Entertainment.
Britain, 871 AD — a young Viking warrior, Steinar (Charlie Bewley), is sent by his father the king on a quest to find his estranged brother, who was banished from the kingdom many years before. Steinar’s epic journey across terrifyingly hostile territory gradually sees him emerge as the man his father wants him to be — the ruthless and unforgiving successor to his throne.
When I get a chance to review a Viking action film, I take it. A man’s got to have some basic rules in life. Action films are my film diet staple, and small British action films pique my interest just about one hundred percent of the time. In the last few years I’ve taken risks on only-vaguely-related titles such as Centurion (2010), Black Death (2011), and Ironclad (2011). And I’ve enjoyed every single one. But the trailer for Hammer Of The Gods really didn’t do much for me. I didn’t recognize a single name in the cast or crew (which isn’t a deal breaker by any means) and visually there wasn’t a whole lot that rose above the generic. I still decided to bite the bullet. It couldn’t be as bad as that Karl Urban Viking film Pathfinder (2006), could it?
Nope, certainly not as bad as that. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few things to enjoy in Hammer Of The Gods. It isn’t a particularly stand-out film, per se, but I’m glad to have watched it and I’d like to see more from quite a few of the previously unknown (to me) cast and crew. And that is one of the fun things about investing in a movie like Hammer Of The Gods.
Let me start out highlighting some of the onscreen talent that I had a good time with. Lead actor Charlie Bewley (The Twilight Saga) doesn’t necessarily strike me as a large or intimidating guy, but I really took a shine to him as the anchor of this film, a Viking prince on a big quest to find his banished brother. Pretty, young, white actors face an uphill battle with me. They have to prove themselves in a way. I guess SO many of the actors we end up seeing in American cinema are pretty white males, and they are so often totally generic… you could swap a Sam Worthington with a Henry Cavill with a Chris Hemsworth and for the most part… would anyone really notice? I’m not saying Charlie Bewley is the second coming, but I admit to having my arms crossed from the start, and he talked me in to rooting for him. His best friend and de facto lieutenant Hagen, played by Clive Standen, was also remarkably imposing and solemn.
Hammer of the Gods is the first feature film for director Farren Blackburn, but the guy has a ton of experience as a television director on some of the most wildly popular british television shows such as Doctor Who and Luther. So he isn’t just a left field director. And the screen writer, Matthew Read, is actually a frequent Nicolas Winding Refn collaborator who wrote the script for the Pusher remake and is listed as an Executive Producer on Only God Forgives as well. Being that this film has a bit of a more mainstream Valhalla Rising vibe, I can totally understand how this came out of the mind of a member of Team Refn, but it certainly never rises to the level of being inspired.
The overall story was engaging as a bit of a “men on a mission” movie populated with Vikings. The only actor I was familiar with prior to seeing the film was James Cosmo (the super awesome old dude in Braveheart who lives through like a hundred fatal wounds… you know the one. He plays tough old Scots or Brits in everything.) Anyway, King James Cosmo is on his deathbed and sends young Steinar on a quest deep into enemy territory to find his banished brother. It wasn’t until the final act of the film when I realized that Hammer of The Gods was totally an Apocalypse Now variation with Vikings. The film gets increasingly abstract and surreal as the quest goes on, introducing some drug-addled hallucinations and some pagan spirituality and the like. It gets a little on the nose as an exploration of the heart of darkness. But for a bloody action romp, you do kind of have to respect that they went for it with the whole Colonel Kurtz nod and all.
There is also a fair amount of tension between the pagan faith of the Vikings, the Christian faith of the Saxons, and our hero’s inability to believe in either. Steinar is maybe supposed to be history’s first secular humanist? Either way, the film implies that Steinar’s resilience and belief in himself and sheer human will power is one of the elements that make him truly ready to be a king. I always like a little religious debate and in many ways, the conflicts between Steiner and his own men over the value of reading signs and omens is the more effective undercurrent of Hammer Of The Gods than the “descent into madness” stuff they try to pay homage to with their Apocalypse Now vibe. I’ve seen a better action-version of Apocalypse Now even within the last year with Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning!
The biggest problems with Hammer Of The Gods come from the confused tone of the feature. I feel a lot of critics sometimes default to talking about “tone” or “pacing” when they don’t like a movie but can’t quite put their finger on why. But no viewer should have a problem understanding what I mean when I say Hammer Of The Gods is all over the place, tonally. In a terribly dated trope, our band of heroes are introduced in the opening scene of the film with dramatically framed slow motion shots complete with title cards appearing onscreen with their names! I loved this trick in the opening sequence of Snatch when Guy Ritchie did it back in the early 2000s, but I feel like maybe it is time to retire the “name card over a freeze frame” gimmick? Regardless of whether that introduction can still be effective or not, what it does indicate to me is a lighthearted, energetic film to come. But as I’ve mentioned, the movie goes pretty dark and brooding.
Then, in a really confounding decision, the score by Benjamin Wallfisch implements faux-metal guitar riffs and even… dare I say… some dubstep? There are some more traditional tracks filled with atmospheric dread-scapes and a more traditional sound. (I re-listened to the soundtrack on Spotify even as I wrote this review!) But ever since Kevin Sorbo wielded his battle axe to heavy metal tracks in Kull The Conqueror, I’ve sort of felt like resorting to metal riffs in your ancient warrior movie is just an admission that you don’t really take your end product seriously. Which is totally fine in many cases. (See: Kull The Conqueror.) But Hammer Of The Gods takes itself very seriously and wants you to descend into an isolated and horrifying battle with sanity itself in your journey alongside Steinar. So I just don’t see dubstep fitting with that vision at all.
I would happily recommend Hammer Of The Gods to anyone who, like me, has a soft spot for Vikings, up and coming Brits, and well choreographed action. Stunt coordinator Richard Ryan actually worked on Ironclad and Solomon Kane, which I mentioned earlier, as well as the RDJ Sherlock Holmes films! But among those titles which I’ve rattled off as sort of kindred to this film, Hammer Of The Gods is probably the least stand out or memorable of the lot.
The Package
There are some creative decisions that occasionally really allow Hammer Of The Gods to stand out visually in a very positive way. The climactic battle between Steinar and his Kurtz-ish banished brother was a lot of fun in that it is shot in pitch black in a dungeon and the brothers are all decked out in war paint and… not much else. My point here is that it looks really cool. The “heart of darkness” themes are in full effect here and shooting a fight scene in the pitch black can go really, really wrong. Here it totally works. BUT, there are just as many unfortunate visuals in the film, such as occasionally blatant use of CG and even, weirdly, the weather! It is clear that the production fell during unseasonably sunny and pleasant weather for Britain. Some sequences that have thunder and lightning in the background clash with actors who are clearly fighting on a bright and sunny field. There is also a similar sequence in the woods which appears to be going for a “day for night” look when really it just looks totally off. Again, guys fighting in bright and sunny woods trying to look like guys fighting in a dark and mysterious woods. This may seem like nit-picking, but this really stood out to me as blatant and distracting.
All of that is to say that the film varies back and forth from looking great, to looking… it’s budget. I’m happy to have gotten the chance to see the Blu-ray if only for the aforementioned climactic battle in the dark!
As far as bonus features go, there are a solid chunk of them for a film this small. You don’t get a commentary track, but there are a couple of featurettes, one an overall behind the scenes and the other focusing on the visual effects of the film. There are also some full interviews broken out into their own feature.
Hammer Of The Gods is a solid Blu-ray rental if you have a hankering for a little Viking-On-Saxon action. But there are a half dozen similar films from the past few years that I’d revisit again before this one.
And I’m Out.